If you went to Millrose, Post What You Liked and Did Not Like

I went to Millrose the first time my to watch my junior year of high school it was a great meet to watch very fun and had a great field. I watched Stacy Dragila break the indoor world record there. In college I had the chance to actually run there on my college 4x4 my freshman year. There were more races to watch and now theres just one college 4x4 w/ three teams. In my race there had to be at least 5 teams in my heat alone. There are plently of NY colleges that would love to run a 4x4 there they just dont want them anymore. What about the nypd vs. fdny 4x4?

Millrose is about being apart of NY running community if they start to take out what its about to be a runner in NY what the hell is the point?

I like the crowds a MSG and the Armory. Very enthusiastic and really excited through the whole meet. No dead spots. The kids were a bit too tame. I went to the last two L.A. Indoor meets before they discontinued it. The kids in L.A. are much more aggresive with plenty of intentional physical contact.

Millrose went through some tough times over the past years. Last year USATF stepped in to bail out the meet. I secured all of the athletes and directed the meet logistics. This year Global Athletics helped organize the meet. Global's president, Mark Wetmore is one of the most respected angents/promoters in Athletics. He is a former athlete and a good person. He understands the sport and Millrose. The team of Mark, Rich Kenah, USATF, myself and Howard Schmertz all worked together to improve this years event. We all listen to the fans. We all are fans ourselves. Our goal is your goal, to make it the best meet it can be. The meet is a very difficult one to put on. It's the only meet I know where the athletic venue doesn't exist 12 hours before the meet starts. When the first gun is fired for the first event, 99% of the work is done.

My hats off to MSG for getting it done. Tuesday night there was a basketball game, Wednesday night - hockey, and Thursday night a Billy Joel Concert! Problems with the track, well there wasn't one there 12 hours earlier.

Keep in mind there were almost 15,000 people at Millrose, the most of any indoor track meet in the US and probably the world.

We are listening.

See you at the 100th

David Katz

This is an interesting thread. David Katz, thanks for monitoring. Looks like nobody liked my saturday or sunday matinee idea but the consensus still seems to include more high school kids in the crowd.

Many people are commenting on the music. Maybe I'm in the minority on this board but I attend a lot of MLB, NBA, NHL games. The music was nowhere near the annoying levels found at those events.

To the person who paid $90 and wondered about bringing a family of four to the Event, well, the Knicks and Rangers do it all the time. As do the Yankees/Mets on weekend games.

Son of a Gunderson wrote:

Many people are commenting on the music. Maybe I'm in the minority on this board but I attend a lot of MLB, NBA, NHL games. The music was nowhere near the annoying levels found at those events.

The people who seem to be complaining about the music are talking about the armory meet where the music is much louder. I personally love it and so does most of the younger generation.

either instead of, or in addition to the all the HS 4x4's from each region, have a relay like the HS mile is done. where it is the best of the best i nthe country running only. it would be exciting to have more high profile high schoolers there.

and get more top college runners there. there are alot of top runners in college who would add to the competitiveness of the meet as well as the hype.

and allow people like nicole blood to run in the HS race.

also i agree with the autograph part. they should have any area/section to get autographs without having ushers kick you out. aand encourage athletes to sign autographs. also, i hated the fact that except bekele, any athlete who didnt take first wouldnt come over to sign autographs, i was getting autographs, and it was dissappointed guys like terrence trammel stormed away (twice) without any signings. but i willadmit the people who did sign autographs were really nice to everyone.

*Well the delay for the track being put together is totally unacceptable so I'm not sure I really need to mention it.

obviously u have never been to an indoor meet held in a hockey stadium before. the old indoor circuit was run primarily in hockey stadiums. guess u'd be more interested in watching the 30m dash...

I didn't go this time, but in past years they did the sprints last, so you didn't have to wait for them to reassemble the oval. A lot of people left at that point, which might be why they no longer do it. But it's understandable that people wouldn't want to wait around 45 minutes for another 30 seconds of racing (men's and women's 60-meter hurdles and 60-meter dashes).

I went up to the armory for $10 tickets, and we sat in about the twentieth row from the track.

Traditionally, the Wanamaker Mile was run at 9 p.m. and was broadcast on the radio, complete with the National Anthem.

Put me in the "old man" category, even though I'm only 27. I do NOT enjoy music blaring so loud you can't hear yourself think, at a track meet or any other sporting event.

I attended an NFL game this past season, and I left completely beaten down by the constant bombardment of rap/rock music. I have completely lost interest in attending NBA games for the same reason. Some sports promoters must think that their games are so boring that they have to blast everyone with music to keep them entertained.

I don't mind an occasional tune being played, but geez, are these sporting events or rock concerts?

Great meet, David.

Year after year the Millrose HS mile fields are depleted because of the restrictions placed by the NYHS federation. Just last week the Boston Indoor Games put on a great race with athletes from across the country and around the world - although Amirault didn't run (was that because of interference from MIAA or because of entry standards?).

If Millrose put on the BEST high school milers from around the country without restriction, that would be terrific. The fact that this meet has excluded athletes like Molly Huddle, Chantelle Dron and Nicole Blood over the last five years because it has to appease an organization is just sad.

Just out of curiosity, which HS association does Coghlan belong to?

All the best,

Giles

okay wrote:

Put me in the "old man" category, even though I'm only 27. I do NOT enjoy music blaring so loud you can't hear yourself think, at a track meet or any other sporting event.

I attended an NFL game this past season, and I left completely beaten down by the constant bombardment of rap/rock music. I have completely lost interest in attending NBA games for the same reason. Some sports promoters must think that their games are so boring that they have to blast everyone with music to keep them entertained.

I don't mind an occasional tune being played, but geez, are these sporting events or rock concerts?

I coudn't agree more. Here's a hint to all event promoters: if you want to entertain the fans, make the product on the track/field/court better. Don't try to make up for a bad product by cranking up a bunch of overplayed tunes.

Hint: if your event production centers on distracting customers from your product, then maybe it's time to improve the product.

Our goal is to find the right mix of sound and light to help enhance the presentation of the athletic competition. All the major meets including the Olympics and World Championships are incorporating these aspects.

My personal goal is to do everything possible to compliment what is going on the field of play. One example: This year, meet managment (USATF & myself) along with Flash Results and Madison Square Garden displayed the running time in a large font on the Garden Vision. In past years, the Garden showed the race in progress. We added the "large digits" to that screen.

The time feed came from the Flash Results which also provide a four scecond hold for splits.

In addition we refined the presentation of the shot put working off of last year's success in displaying each of the throws in huge digits on the Garden Vision.

We have much more work to do and we are always open to suggestion.

kjkkljkl wrote:

I don't know about him, but I'm in my late 20s, and I was horrified the last time I worked out at a track. A HS girls soccer game happened to be starting in the nearby field, the girls were warming up, being introduced, etc. to rap music about girls grinding their asses against men. WTF? I'm sure the hell not allowing my daughter compete at, or even attend, any event with that type of "blaring music." If they want to try and market TF to horny teenagers, good luck competing with the team sports with their cheerleaders.

Wow, you are a frigging dork. I'd hate to be your daughter.

Overall, I was pretty disappointed with Millrose. There was a LOT of potential but it never really delivered. There's a lot of gimmick involved being on the small track so its not like people go there for the amazing times. They go for some excitement and fun. I agree with some of the above posters, it should've been handled more like an NBA event with light shows, music, etc. The meet moved too slowly (without even getting into the whole taking apart and reassembling the track fiasco). There were 15000 people in attendance and it was quiet as a church in there between events. They need to keep the energy up if its going to draw a crowd. Get one event on the track right after another. If they can put together a whole stage for the rolling stones at the super bowl, they can get a crew to fix the track in a hurry. The dead time was brutal. The Reebok meet in Boston the week before was polar opposite. Didn't drag on, lots of noise and energy. Even without the light show, etc. it was much more fun to watch and I never felt like I was bored at any moment. I don't feel the need to be constantly entertained, but if I'm paying to watch a competition then I want to watch track...not a bunch of guys putting the track together one screw at a time in complete silence.

The fact that the mile events started well after 11pm was a problem. Some of the people I was sitting with had to leave to catch a train.

I got in to the meet about 730 or so, and after the high school 4 by 8, there just seemed to be an incredible amount of down time before there was an interesting distance race. I would go back to the old schedule of running the sprints later.

okay wrote:

Put me in the "old man" category, even though I'm only 27. I do NOT enjoy music blaring so loud you can't hear yourself think, at a track meet or any other sporting event.

I attended an NFL game this past season, and I left completely beaten down by the constant bombardment of rap/rock music. I have completely lost interest in attending NBA games for the same reason. Some sports promoters must think that their games are so boring that they have to blast everyone with music to keep them entertained.

I don't mind an occasional tune being played, but geez, are these sporting events or rock concerts?

Clearly, you weren't at the meet this year. I think it is best if people post on this thread they make it clear if they were at the meet so the meet promoters can get a clear understanding. The thread has now been picked up and infiltrated by people who weren't at the meet, have read some people talking about the loud music (people at the armory which is a separate meet), and now others are like "I don't want blaring loud music".

Track and field has a ton of dead time. We need music during it for sure.

I have very few complaints about the meet. The fields for the men's and women's miles and the sprints were quite strong.

But I have to say, I don't understand this nonsense about appeasing the "association" in regard to the high school miles. The Reebok Boston Indoor Games did not do that. Abiding by a set of rules that keeps Nicole Blood, a two-time previous winner, out of the meet and lets an underqualified kid from Ireland with a famous last name into the boys race is sort of ridiculous.

include the fat man\'s relay- 4 x 200...

[quote]wejo wrote:

*I liked having the pole vault. US vaulters get very few opportunities to compete in America. [quote]

I'm not the fan like I used to be when I was competing and announcing, but I have doubts about the accuracy of that statement.